Harry Potter and the Dark Year
by rowlinghermione
Summary: Harry is in his 7th year and he begins his hunt for Voldemort's seven horcuxes. He must face many challenges with his three best friends. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. HPGW, and DMHG.
1. Going Home

**HARRY POTTER AND THE DARK YEAR**

**Chapter 1: Going Home**

**_Note:_** I only own the plot and new characters. Everything and everyone else other than what I have just mentioned was designed by JK Rowling and are not mine to claim or disclaim.

BORDER

"Harry! Wait for us!" Hermione yelled across the station at Hogwarts School.

Hagrid stood waving as the students left while Professor McGonagall talked to Professor Slughorn. Harry heard bits and pieces of their conversation. "Snape… Dark mark… you-know-who."

"Pig? Pig?" Ron called to his owl. Everyone was looking for his or her lost items. Finally, the students and parents were seated in their compartments. Bill, Fleur, Fred, George, Tonks, Remus, Molly, and Arthur sat in one compartment, while Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Harry sat down in another. The train was enlarged to fit double the amount of people, due to the fact that parents and students would need a way home, preferably together.

BORDER

**Harry's compartment:**

"Harry? Are you okay? You've been so quiet lately," Hermione asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just… I was wondering who that R.A.B. guy is. I mean, he must be really smart and know what enchantments look like, just like Dumbledore," Harry spoke as though this person was the one person that could help him destroy Voldemort.

"You do know, Harry, that this R.A.B. guy could be a girl. The handwriting looked neat enough to be a woman," Hermione told him, but continued at the look on Harry's face, "but it is just an idea."

"Hermione is right, Harry. This R.A.B. could be a man or a woman. The problem is that there are so many people with those initials. I mean there are: Raymond Arnaldo Brant, Roy Andrew Barn, and Randy Artemus Board, and Rory Ann Bridge. And those are only a few. Before you even start the horcrux hunt, you will need to find this one person," Ginny told Harry.

"She's right, Harry. How will you find them if you can't even figure out the enchantments?" Ron questioned.

"Easy. One should be located with R.A.B… one near Voldemort, his snake… then there's the cup… and something belonging to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw," Harry shrugged as he told them this.

"We're with you all the way," Ginny told him.

"All the way," Ron and Hermione agreed.

**Remus' Compartment:**

"Who will be in charge of the Order?" Arthur asked.

"I don't know," Remus shook his head, as he told them. Then, his face lit up, and he exclaimed, "Why not Harry? He's coming of age in a month, and he owns Grimmald Place. He has also denied Voldemort four times, and was Dumbledore's favorite student."

"Yes, but isn't he a little young?" Molly worriedly questioned. "He does have a life and he needs to concentrate on finding You-Know-Who."

"All for the better," Remus continued. "That's what we're trying to do, find Voldemort. We can help him, and he can help us. Why not?"

"He's too young. We can't risk it," Arthur intervened.

"He's going to be at risk either way," Bill told his father. "He isn't going to let his parents' or Dumbledores' death go. He is going to avenge them, one way or the other."

"Yes, 'e is going to go either way. 'e vill need our 'elp," Fleur told them. " 'e may be a chil' still, but 'e will be of age soon. 'e can make his own decisions, but it would be easier if ve were there, watching 'im. Ve can't stop 'im from his destiny, only help 'im through it."

"We can help him without having him be the leader of the Order of the Pheonix," Tonks replied.

"As I said, he's the best for the job. He is the only one who could defy Voldemort four times. That's once more than his parents or the Longbottoms," Remus stated his opinion.


	2. Privet Drive

Harry Potter and the Dark Year Chapter 2: Privet Drive 

"I really can't believe you're going to stay there with me. My three best friends, staying in a muggle house," Harry told them.

"A muggle house? Is that what you call it? I live in one during the summer too," Hermione reminded him.

"Don't worry 'bout it. Look at the better side," Ron looked out of the ministry car and gasped at the sight of the large house. "I can't believe my luck. We get to stay in a huge house, that doesn't include annoying adults telling us what to do. I'm so glad that we can do magic out of school this year, now that we are considered adults."

"I'm not," Ginny reminded them.

"I forgot about that. How are you supposed to help me on the journey?" Harry asked.

"I thought you said that the ministry only knows that someone is doing magic in the place, but if there are other wizards or witches, they won't know who did it," Hermione replied. "So, basically, Ginny's fine. We're adults, so the ministry won't know if we did it, or Ginny."

"Wingardium Leviosa." Harry said, and with a wave of his wand, the four trunks rose, and hovered in front of the front door. Harry knocked, and Dudley answered the door. Without warning, Harry swung the trunks through the door and into Dudley. Thump.

"Oww," Dudley grunted. "I'll kill you for that. I'm uninviting you to my party," Dudley shrieked.

" Dudley, you can't uninvited me if you didn't ever invite me," Harry told him.

"You're going to stay locked in your room. Ha! Who are they?" Dudley suddenly noticed Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

"School friends. They're staying here for a week."

"Hey, you're that kid with those red-headed brother's that broke Harry out of his room when I was twelve," Dudley stared at Ron, not looking very pleased to have him staying at his home. "You're not allowed to do magic outside of your cruddy school. You're going to be expelled!"

"The 'cruddy' school you're talking about, isn't going to be opening up again this year. Oh, didn't I tell you? We wizards turn into adults at age seventeen," Harry stated. "Now will you please move?"

"Once you tell me who your girlfriends are," Dudley braced himself, ready for a blow.

""Hi, I'm Hermione Granger," she said trying to keep Harry from doing another spell in front of a muggle. "Oh, and this is Ginny Weasley. She's sixteen, and I'm seventeen."

"And who is he?" Dudley asked, and pointed toward Ron.

"Ron Weasley. Now will you move? Or do you want me to blow your head off?"

"Go on in," Dudley stepped out of the way without hesitating, as he said this.

"Is this how it is every summer," Ron whispered to the three, "to live with muggles?"

"Not all the time," Harry replied.

* * *

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading, please review. Sorry for such a long wait.


	3. The Call

_Author's Note:_ This is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. (For those of you who haven't figured it out yet). Ummm.. have fun reading!

**_

* * *

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Chapter 3

"I don't want you in my party," Dudley told them.

"Sure, Dudleykins," Harry teased. "We'll be upstairs."

"Okay," Dudley started, but an owl had flown into the room, and dropped a letter in front of Harry's feet. Dudley decided that then was the time to check his emails, so Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were left alone in the kitchen.

"What's it say?" Ron asked and made to grab the letter.

Harry passed the letter to Hermione, and she read: Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Harry dear,"

"Harry dear?" Ron questioned and laughed.

Hermione continued, "First, Fleur and Bill's wedding will take place on August 5th. Oh, you will be getting a letter from the Order soon, so don't be surprised. Oh, the Order will be asking the four of you to become members in the next meeting. Hope all is well, Mrs. Weasley."

For a few minutes, there was complete silence. Then, Ron asked them, "So, we are going, right?"

"Yeah," Haarry replied. "Let's go back up to my room." Ron and Ginny gave each other a quick glance, and then climbed up the stairs to the room that all four of them were sharing.

"Harry! Get the phone!" Aunt Petunia bellowed up the stairs.

"Coming," he yelled down the steps. Then he said to the other three, "I'll be back in a minute."

Harry quickly ran down the stairs, and Aunt Petunia shoved the phone into his hands.

"Hello?" Harry uncertainly spoke as he picked up the phone.

"Hey," a girl's voice greeted him. "Is this Harry Potter? The Harry Potter?"

"Umm… yeah," Harry said.

"Okay. Just checking. As you may know, Hogwarts will be closed this year, and do you have a girlfriend?" She asked, obviously distracted.

"Umm… no."

"Oh, good. Are you free…okay okay," she said, another person's voice clearly heard.

"Stop fooling around, Britney!"

"Sorry, mom," Britney apologized. "As I was saying, Hogwarts will be closed, and many of their students will be coming to Destiny's School in America," she paused. "My mother is the headmistress so… yeah."

"Where is the school?"

"New Jersey," she replied.

"What's your phone number?" Harry asked.

"Why?"

"So that I can call the headmistress," Harry told her.

Obviously this wasn't the answer she was hoping for, because she gave a sigh, and then said, "Oh, okay. Umm… Gimme ten seconds… We don't normally use the phone… it's here for long distances where owls can't reach there easily. Ah, there it is. Do you have a pen and paper?"

"Do I need it?" Harry asked, and took out his wand.

"That depends," she answered. "Ok. Ready? (732)-297-5649."

"Thanks," Harry said, and looked at the numbers written in red on the air. "I'll call you later. See you around."

"See ya," she answered. A few seconds later, Harry hung up.


	4. Kidnapped

Harry Potter and the Dark Year  
Chapter 4

"Hermione! Ron!" Harry called for his friends. "We're late for the Order meeting!" Hermione and Ron walked down the stairs, hand in hand. Harry felt something inside of him hit him. A spark of...dare he think it...jealousy.

"I'm here!" Ginny walked from the kitchen and over to Harry. She kissed him on the lips. Hermione's smile faltered, for a second, but only a second.

"We're late," Harry repeated. "We'll apparate a few blocks away. It'll be safer."

"Okay." Hermione, Ron, and Harry disapparated. Ginny stood in the hallway, tapping her foot. Harry apparated in front of her.

"Oops. Sorry. I forgot that you couldn't apparate yet," Harry explained.

"Lucky you. Just disapparate already!" Ginny sighed, grabbing his arm.

Harry and Ginny apparated back to where Hermione and Ron were waiting. A group of ten death eaters appareated around them. "Expelliarmus!" Snape yelled. All four of the teenager's wands flew out of their hands, toward him. Snape caught them.

"CRUCIO!" Snape pointed his wand at Hermione. She started to shake. After a few minutes, she fell to the ground. Meanwhile, Ron and Ginny had been stunned. Harry just stood there, looking between friends. It only took him about a second to choose who to save. Hermione. Harry threw himself between Snape and Hermione. The spell stopped hitting Hermione, and redirected itself toward Harry. Hermione lay on the ground, shaking because of the after effects of the spell.

A man with longblond hair on Harry's left walked toward Hermione. He bent down, touching her face. "Filthy little mudblood." Hermione looked away from him. His hand floated downward, to her inner thigh. Hermione tried to scramble away from him, but she was shaking too much to keep herself steady enough to do that. "You'd be a good maid," Lucius whispered in her ear. "Let's go home."

Harry yelled out upon hearing this, "NO!" His hand glowed white and his wand flew at him. He was too enfuriated at what Lucius had just said to Hermione to feel the pain of the curse. He threw his hand out at Lucius, but Lucius and Hermione were gone.

"HARRY! She's...gone," Ginny yelled.

Harry quickly threw his hand up, and the two death eaters closest to them flew backwards. All of the death eaters quickly disapparated. Harry undid the stun spells. Ron flew over to the spot that Hermione was last seen. "Hermione..."

"Ron! Move!" Harry yelled. "We lost Hermione already. We have to go...NOW! Before others come!" Harry told him.

"She's...gone," Ginny whimpered. "She's going to die before we get to her..."

"She's not going to die," Harry comforted her. "I'm sorry Hermione, I just wasn't quick enough," Harry whispered.

The wind started to speak. "Harry...Come for me..." The three teenagers walked the rest of the way to Grimmald Place.


	5. Drunk

"Man," Hermione sighed. She threw a rock at the ground. She was in the Malfoy dungeon. That's where they literally threw her. Hermione had already tried to apparate, but it didn't work. She tried again. She disappeared from sight just to be placed there yet again. "Arg."

"It's not going to work," a voice said from the shadows. "Why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione rolled her eyes. "I was kidnapped."

"How'd you manage that?" The voice questioned.

"We, Harry, Ron, Ginny and myself had apparated to…a street. Around thirty death eaters surrounded us. Someone hit me with the cruciatus curse. Two others had stunned Ginny and Ron. Harry jumped in between the curse and me. I tried to move toward my wand, but another death eater had gotten in my way. That son of a bitch, Lucius Malfoy. He told me that I'd make a good maid. He touched my face. And then…he disapparated… bringing us both here."

"Oh."

"Why are you here?" Hermione asked the voice. The person was still in the shadows. She couldn't see him.

"I live here," the voice replied. "Do you know what he meant by the whole 'you'll be a nice maid'?"

"Well…I guess he meant someone that cleans and stuff…like a house elf."

"No. He has house elves. He doesn't want a house elf to do what he's thinking of with. He wants a girl," the voice told her. "Honestly, I feel bad for you." A blond haired teenager stepped out of the shadows.

"Malfoy?" Hermione denounced.

"Yeah. Although I'd prefer it if you called me Draco or Dragon or something else. I don't want to get confused with my father. I hate him. I was actually hoping that the Golden Trio could help me by killing him."

"Oh. So you just give us the dirty work, don't you?" Hermione frowned.

"Well…no. I said that I had hoped. I never said that I had sent him to find you. That was the Dark Lord's doing."

"Voldemort?" Hermione asked.

"Please don't say his name around here…" Draco drifted off. He glanced around the room, making sure no one else had heard her. "My father will torture you. He's done it to me millions of times."

"Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort," Hermione repeated. "Voldemort, Voldemort. VOLDEMORT!"

Draco jumped each time she said the name. "Stop," he begged her. "He'll come down here."

"Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort," Hermione repeated. A door slammed open. Draco threw himself into the shadows.

"Told you so," he whispered to her.

"GRANGER!" Lucius yelled. "Crucio!" Hermione fell to the ground, whimpering.

"Stop," Hermione begged.

"You haven't learned your lesson yet," Lucius barked. "Only when you've learned the lesson, can I stop. What is the lesson?"

"Never… say… Voldemort's…name…" Hermione gasped.

"What did you say?" Lucius barked.

"Never..say…Voldemort's…name…"

"No," he growled. "That's not the lesson." He kicked her in the stomach.

"Never…say…you-know-who's…name," Hermione gasped.

"Good girl," Lucius told her. He kicked her again. "Now let's hope you remember that for the future." He kicked her again. "Once for every time you said it. How many times did you say his name?" Hermione didn't answer. "Okay. If you want it that way…" He kicked her for the next fifteen minutes, nonstop.

Hermione kept whimpering at every kick. By the tenth kick, tears had started to run down her face. "Stop," she begged. She curled into a ball.

"LUCIUS!" A woman's voice came from upstairs. "Come up here! We have a guest!"

"Coming!" Lucius called back, extremely politely for someone that had just kicked a girl for the past fifteen minutes. Lucius quickly made his way up the stairs. "I'll be back for you," he told Hermione. Hermione whimpered. The door slammed shut and Hermione could hear the door being locked.

"I told you that he'd come," Malfoy muttered to himself. He walked over to Hermione and kneeled down beside her. Hermione remained curled up in a ball. "It hurts a lot less if you breath out before he kicks you. Now, can you please uncurl yourself? I might be able to help you."

"Why would you want to help me?" Hermione gasped.

"Because. I almost killed Professor Dumbledore, and I didn't help all the other girls that came by here. All those girls died or have been locked up. I don't want that to happen to you. And I can't even help the people that are fighting against…the Dark Lord anyway. This is the only way that I've been able to think of." He raised her shirt, so that he could see her stomach. He touched a dark mark on her skin. Hermione shrunk away from him. "I can't help you if you won't let me."

"I don't need your help," Hermione groaned.

"Fine." Draco got up and turned around. He stood in front of her and said, "This is your choice. You can die if you want to. It's your decision." He picked something up off the ground and made to apparate.

"No. Don't leave," Hermione griped at his leg. "I need…help." It hurt her to say this, since she and Draco Malfoy had been enemies for all of their lives, but she really needed it. She slowly moved out of her curled position.

"Now, I'm going to put this ointment on your stomach. Okay?" She nodded and closed her eyes. She knew that it was going to hurt. Draco lifted her shirt so that he could see her stomach. He slowly started rubbing the potion into her skin. Hermione tried to get away, but the floor was in her way. She whimpered.

"What…is that? It's…really cold," she complained.

"A potion that I found at some muggle store," Draco told her.

Someone undid the lock and the door slammed open yet again. Someone was stomping down the stairs. Draco grabbed the 'potion' and ran back into the shadows.

"Granger!" The voice slurred. Lucius had been drinking. Hermione jumped up from the floor, not wanting to show any sign of weakness. "Hermione," he slurred, sneering. "How long I've waited." He walked up to her, touching her face. Hermione scowled. She backed away from him. All she accomplished was backing herself into a corner. Trapped. He was in front of her. Hermione tried to dodge to his left, but he caught her. He roughly pushed her up against the wall. He stepped on her feet so that she couldn't kick him. Soon enough, his breath was on her face. It smelt of whiskey. His lips roughly crashed into hers. Hermione brought her right arm and socked him. "That's not very nice," he smirked. Then, he punched her in the stomach. "Bitch." From the shadows, Draco could hear a loud crack.

Lucius smirked. Hermione's face was full of pain. Her hand immediately moved to her stomach, where he had punched her. Lucius' lips were on hers again. Hermione tried to fight him off. She punched him with her other hand. Lucius stopped. "Bitch. No one EVER hits ME!" Lucius did an uppercut into Hermione's stomach. Another crack. Hermione doubled over. Lucius, in one sweeping motion, threw her onto the ground…. (A/N: Bla bla bla… DRACOs PoV now…)

Draco had stopped watching. He turned away from the site. Soon enough, he could hear her shriek. About five minutes later, Lucius had left and Hermione had been left on the hard floor to flood the room in tears.


End file.
